


He's Cute, I'm Awkward

by LadyLuckOfMine



Category: Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator
Genre: Fluff, General, M/M, coffee shop au on a technicality, they're both anxious dads
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-01
Updated: 2017-09-01
Packaged: 2018-12-22 08:34:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11963685
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyLuckOfMine/pseuds/LadyLuckOfMine
Summary: “Them being Canadian has nothing to do with it. Canada has a lot of bands like… Nickelback.""Well, I hope the other bands aren’t all like Nickelback.”---How the first date comes to be.





	He's Cute, I'm Awkward

**Author's Note:**

> I don't like the whole dadbook aspect of the game, and how that's used as the medium to set out on dates. So here's my personal take on the lead up to the first date with Mat. 
> 
> Title can be read as being both from Nate's and Mat's perspectives, tbh.

Through out the day, the coffee shop had an almost constant buzz of chatter that mixed in with the calming music playing softly in the background. It blended together with the humming of the various machines, and the sounds of dishes moving around, to create the most relaxing white noise possible. Without a doubt, the Coffee Spoon had quickly become Nathan’s favourite place to sit and do the work. The noise levels were just right, so that it didn’t distract him from what he was doing, but just enough to prevent him from being surrounded by too much silence.

It also helped that the owner was a kindred anxious spirit, who was cute to boot. Some days, while the noise level was just perfect for optimal focus, it was just difficult for Nathan to grade mid-terms when Mat was there. The way he stood at the counter, taking orders and chatting with the various customers was just heart meltingly adorable, and endlessly distracting as Nathan tried to prevent himself from striking up conversation when he had work. Being almost forty-two now, Nathan realized that he shouldn’t have been so utterly smitten with a man he had barely known for a month. He was a fully-grown man, long past his days of school yard crushes. It was laughable that he had a crush, and couldn’t keep it in check long enough to finish marking first year mid-terms.

Frustrated with his inability to focus (he had promised to have the grades back to his students by Thursday), Nathan pulled at one of his curls, watching as it stretched out until it was straight. He watched as it snapped back into a tight coil upon release, humming softly to himself. It was soon time for a haircut, but he would have to schedule it some time later, when he was done grading. Nathan knew his mind was looking for distractions, trying to find the smallest tasks to procrastinate with.

“Losing all faith in your students again?” Nathan cursed (rather loudly, he could practically feel several people staring at him), jumping slightly at the unexpected sound of a voice talking to him. His heart raced in his chest in shock, and he inhaled sharply through his nose to try and calm it. Across the table from him, Mat stood, smiling nervously as if he realized just how badly he had scared Nathan. Knowing what he did of Mat, the man was probably horrified over the fact, and Nathan felt a spike of guilt at the thought that he might have made Mat feel more anxious than normal. Shit. “Shoot. I… Sorry ‘bout that. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“I-It’s fine,” Nathan said, trying to sound as reassuring as possible. His voice cracked, however, and he cleared his throat as if that might prevent it from any further traitorous mishaps. Nathan sat the test he had been working on down (the kid needed some help, he obviously wasn’t retaining much of what Nathan was teaching in class), and grabbed his half full mug of hot chocolate. Taking a sip, mostly to calm his nerves, but also to hopefully prevent his voice from shaking or cracking, Nathan stared down at the table, unable to bring himself to look at Mat’s face. Nathan really didn’t like it when people he hardly knew found out about how badly he reacted to being scared. He also couldn’t bring himself to look directly at Mat’s face, afraid of what his expression might be. The rim of his mug clinked uncomfortably against his teeth.

“You want a refill? On the house, of course. To, uh, make up for scaring you.”

“No, thank you,” Nathan said, keeping his gaze focused on the table. For a coffee shop, there were surprisingly few mug stains on the surface of the dark wood. Was that mahogany? Fancy.

Unfortunately, his words had come out harsher than Nathan had meant them to, and when he summoned the courage to glance up at Mat’s face, the man’s usual soft and inviting smile was replaced with a look of shame. Mat’s face fell, and Nathan could feel his stomach dropping with it.

Shit.

“Alright, sure, um…” Here, Mat trailed off, bringing a hand up to rub at the back of his neck. He glanced around the room, as if physically looking for the words he wanted to say. Nathan was half tempted to help him look, just to do something to break the awkward silence that had fallen over him. The noise of the shop continued on in the background, but even with it, Nathan felt as if it was too quiet all of a sudden.

Nathan knew Mat had anxiety. It was obvious from the time they had met. He could sympathize all too well. Yet it wasn’t until just now that Mat had become so nervous that he couldn’t find his voice to speak to him. Nate instantly regretted his tone from earlier. In just one moment, it seemed as if Nathan had managed to destroy the tentative friendship that had formed between them. It was just as Nathan was about to apologize that Mat found his voice again.

“There’s a concert, coming up.” Mat paused, looking at Nathan for a moment before staring intently at the table between them. Nathan watched as Mat fidgeted where he stood, looking extremely uncomfortable. “I got an extra ticket, and I know you’re really into music too, so I- well, y’know. Maybe… you’d like to go? With me?”

Nathan blinked, finding himself absolutely dumbfounded by Mat’s… question? Proposal? “Who’s playing?” Nathan’s mind had come to a screeching halt as he tried to make sense of what had just happened. Was Mat really asking him to go to a concert? Together? Like a date? No, he reasoned. There was no way that could possibly be right. They barely knew each other, and Nathan had made an ass out of himself in front of Mat just a moment ago. Did Mat really think that he wanted to spend more time with him?

“Um, PUP. They’re a Can-“

“A Canadian punk rock band,” Nathan finished, not even realizing that he had interrupted Mat. His mouth and body was just working on autopilot as his brain tried to figure out what was going on. It wasn’t until Mat chuckled that Nathan snapped back to his senses, shaking his head slightly to clear out the fog, and looking up at him.

“Yeah. Shoulda realized that you’d know of them, duh,” Mat said, lightly smacking himself on the forehead. Nathan wasn’t sure if Mat was trying to play off of the awkwardness from before, or if he honestly was considering Nathan and PUP’s shared citizenship as being the reason why Nathan knew of them. “Since you’re, y’know. Canadian and all.”

“Them being Canadian has nothing to do with it.” Nathan had said plenty of silly stuff due to his anxiety boiling over. He reckoned that Mat was only making the weird connection due to the anxiety of asking someone out. At least, Nathan was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on that. “Canada has a lot of bands like…” Now it was Nathan’s turn to pause, as he tried to think of another brain. It seemed the fog still hadn’t completely cleared out yet, and Nathan spent an awkward fifteen seconds grasping for any name he could think of.

“… Nickelback.”

That got a laugh out of Mat, the sound musical and light. Nathan could feel his face heating up, partially from embarrassment (Nickelback, NICKELBACK), and partially from how warm Mat’s laugh made him feel. Once again, Nathan found himself having trouble deciding whether he was a grown ass adult, or a seven-year-old dealing with his first crush again.

He took another drink from his mug, unsure of whether he wanted to drown in the chocolatey goodness, or live long enough to see how this played out. Somewhere, there was a deep hole, and Nathan was only digging further down. However, Mat flashed him a warm smile that seemed to make his whole face light up, and Nathan decided that maybe he could survive this encounter without finding his death in the drink.

“Well, I hope the other bands aren’t all like Nickelback.” Nathan sat his mug down, and took a deep breath, his chest rising as he tried to prevent himself from launching into defending the band. It was one thing if another Canadian made fun of Nickelback, but practically a hate crime if an American did. Nathan was obligated to defend almost every Canadian person or band; out of some deep-seated rivalry all Canadians were born with against Americans.

Nathan didn’t even like Nickelback.

“No, they’re better. I’ll yell you about them sometime, when I remember they’re names.” Another chuckle from Mat, and then silence fell over them once more. It didn’t take long until Mat started to look uncomfortable again, and that began to make Nathan uncomfortable. He had no idea what was wrong with the situation, or if Mat was expecting anything else from him. Hadn’t Nathan already made a big enough fool of himself before the man?

“So…” Mat began, nervously wringing his hands, “is that a yes?”

“Yes to...?”

“Go to the PUP show. With me?”

“Oh!” Nathan’s eyes widened in a mixture of shock and horror as he realized he had forgotten to give Mat an actual answer. There it was. Shit. Nathan wanted nothing more than to be eaten up by the floor right then and there. How the fuck had he forgotten to answer? “Yeah, sure, I’d love to go. With you.”

Almost instantly, Mat visibly relaxed. Nathan found himself yet again thinking about how adorable Mat was. Mat smiled softly, scratching thoughtlessly at his cheek, as if flustered. His expression was easy to read, and Nathan hadn’t seen anyone look so happy to hang out with him in years. His stomach twisted slightly as he realized that only Alex had ever really looked like that when Nathan had first accepted his invitation to go on a date.

“Then it’s a date?” Mat said the word “date” tentatively, as though he was unsure if him and Nathan were on the same page. Hearing the word spoken out loud was slightly alarming, but it was essentially what Nathan had been hoping Mat was asking for. Nathan nodded, and smiled back at him, resisting the strong urge to cover his cheeks with his hands.

“Yeah, it’s a date,” he replied. Just then, the bell at the counter rang, signaling that Mat had a customer he had to attend to. It startled both slightly, and they shared a quiet laugh.

“I guess I’ll have to text you the details later, huh?” Mat asked, quirking his head to the side, his smile so wide now that he was squinting. Nathan chuckled, looking to the side as it became too much for him to maintain eye contact.

“Looks like it. You better get back to work before an angry mob forms.” Mat laughed at that, turning to leave, but not before giving Nathan a playful wink.

Nathan sunk low into his seat, watching as Mat made his way back to the counter, finally giving in and touching his cheeks. His face felt like it was on fire, and he felt giddy. Too giddy for a man of his age, surely, but dammit, there was something about Mat that made Nathan feel young again.

With Mat now gone, and the fact that the two of them now had an official date together, Nathan turned his attention back to the mid-terms. He figured that if anything was going to motivate him to finish marking them all, it was the fact that he now had a date with the cute owner of the coffee shop to look forward too.

Amanda was going to freak out so badly when he told her.

**Author's Note:**

> Translation Notes:  
> Nickelback (noun) - A band from Canada  
> PUP (noun) - A band from Canada  
> Canada (noun) - A large country that apparently only has two bands
> 
> So, this will be the second story I've published in two days, and I just wanna say straight up that this isn't indicative of how often I'll actually post stories. I just happened to have two short drabbles done, and that's the way the dice fell. Which is why if you have a story idea for Mat, you should totally write it up and post it, so we can populate the world with more Mat Sella content. It's what the world needs right now.
> 
> Also, Nickelback fucking sucks, dudes.


End file.
